Dai Nam Zoo

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What could be better on a lazy Sunday than a trip to the zoo? We set off back to Dai Nam (Dai Nam Wonderland and a Halloween to Remember!) because last time, the zoo was the one section that we missed out on. This time though, we had no students in tow! That made us the number one attraction for every group of other students in the park!

Entry to Dai Nam seemed to have gone up a little since we last visited but 70,000 VND is still just a couple of pounds. The zoo then cost another 50,000 VND which, to us, isn't bad. If you went with a family of four and also went on a few of the amusement rides, it seems you can soon build up a figure that most Vietnamese families simply could not afford.

At the entrance to the zoo there are a multitude of garish, possibly deformed, cartoonish animals, some of which are rather disturbing! Inside it's easy to walk around at a leisurely pace to see the birds, reptiles and mammals. Some are kept in much nicer enclosures than others. The elephants seemed very distressed but the bears seemed to have a life of luxury. We were a little disturbed to see the way that some people goad the animals to try to make them more lively and more than a little surprised at the ease of access to the giraffes.

It was a good day out, but a zoo is a zoo, and these animals are all in captivity. It would be a little less sad if they were being used for educational purposes but clearly most visitors don't really care to learn more, they just want to have fun and maybe make a tiger growl! Maybe one day we will go on safari and see the animals in their native habitats.

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